Oakland native uses Twinkies to make art

By Martin Griffith Associated Press

Posted:
02/03/2013 01:00:00 AM PST

Updated:
02/04/2013 10:08:57 AM PST

Click photo to enlarge

In this Dec. 14, 2012, photo, Artist Nancy Peppin holds one of her creations from her series "Day of the Dead Twinkies" one of dozens of pieces of art she has created over the years using Twinkies and other Hostess products, in Reno, Nev. A graphic artist by day for slot machine-maker International Game Technology, Peppin doesn't like to eat Twinkies. She uses them to depict popular culture similar to the work of Andy Warhol. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner)

Long before Hostess Brands' plan to shut down made Twinkies the rage, Nancy Peppin found something special about the cream-filled snack cakes.

No, she doesn't have a sweet tooth for them.

However, she has featured Twinkies in hundreds of pieces of quirky, satirical artwork because of an obsession with what she calls the "ultimate American food icon."

The prolific artist, a Reno resident, says she was first influenced to focus on Twinkies in 1975 by Andy Warhol, who demonstrated that even a Campbell's soup can could be an object of art.

"He showed you a new way of looking at a familiar object," said Peppin, who has sold and exhibited her artwork. "That's what I'm doing with Twinkies. I'm having people look at Twinkies in a brand-new way and in an entertaining way."

Shortly after Hostess Brands Inc. announced plans to go out of business last year, Peppin was among those who joined the rush to stores to fill shopping carts with boxes of the spongy cakes.

Unlike others, she didn't buy 12 boxes with 10 Twinkies each to turn a profit on eBay or Craigslist.

"I needed art supplies," said Peppin, who uses Twinkies and their packaging to create some of her pieces. She also features renderings of the snack cakes in watercolor paintings, mixed media, prints and artwork.

Her works include her "Twinkies in history series," which portrays how scientists such as John James Audubon, Charles Darwin and Leonardo da Vinci would have sketched and written about Twinkies in journals or books.

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Peppin, a native of Oakland who earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley in 1966, conducted extensive research to make the series seem as authentic as possible.

Her Audubon series on the "North American Twinkie (twinkopus hostus)" includes illustrations of three "important subspecies -- Cream-bellied Twinkie, Strawberry-throated Twinkie, Golden-backed Twinkie" -- as well as writings describing the "birds" and explaining their migration patterns.

"Twinkies radiate out from the spring St. Louis breeding area to the summer nesting habitats throughout the world. Populations are heaviest in the North American 7-11 meridian," she wrote. St. Louis and 7-Eleven stores both share a long history with Hostess and its brands.

She updated the Audubon series after Hostess shut down operations in November: "It went from being the most popular snack cake in the world to sudden extinction due to consumption by raptors -- capitalist vultures (cathartes wallstreetidae)."

Her painting titled "The Last Snack" is a takeoff of Leonardo's "The Last Supper" featuring Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and other Hostess products at a table with the same arrangement and background as Leonardo's classic.

Her parody of a "girly" calendar from an auto body shop features a partially undressed "Miss Twinkie" standing next to her Harley.